The present invention relates generally to fuel dispensers and, more particularly, to fuel dispensers and systems capable of communicating with various types of transponders and detecting their movement within and throughout a fueling environment.
In recent years, traditional gasoline pumps and service stations have evolved into elaborate point-of-sale (POS) devices having sophisticated control electronics and user interfaces with large displays and touch-pads or screens. The dispensers include various types of payment means, such as card readers and cash acceptors, to expedite and further enhance fueling transactions. A customer is not limited to the purchase of fuel at the dispenser. More recent dispensers allow the customer to purchase services, such as car washes, and goods, such as fast food or convenience store products at the dispenser. Once purchased, the customer need only pick up the goods and services at the station store or the outlet of a vending machine.
Remote transaction systems have evolved wherein the fuel dispenser is adapted to communicate with various types of remote communication devices, such as transponders, to provide various types of identification and information to the fuel dispenser automatically. Given the sophistication of these transaction systems and the numerous choices provided to the customer at the dispenser conducting transactions with transponders will be useful to allow the dispenser and fuel station store to monitor the movement of a person carrying a transponder and a vehicle having a transponder, enhance transaction and marketing efficiencies, and improve safety in the fueling environment.
The present invention is adapted to personalize a fueling operation on an individual customer basis. During a transaction, an interrogator will interrogate a transponder and receive customer preferences for identification indicia, which will allow the dispenser or associated control system to access predefined customer preferences associated with that transponder and customer. Typically, the preferences are determined early in the fueling or transaction operation. The information may be accessed as a customer approaches a dispenser to enable the control system to provide the customer with a personalized greeting, pre-selected information, such as news, traffic, weather, scores or stock reports, in addition to providing customer-selected advertising, merchandising or entertainment presentations prior to being issued a transponder. The customer may fill out an application or form, relating to the types of information, greetings and multimedia presentations he or she would be interested in receiving during a fueling operation. The customer-selected information will be entered into a database associated with the transponder ID or actually stored on the transponder in a format capable of instructing the dispenser or central control system to act accordingly during a transaction.
Accordingly, one aspect of the present invention is to provide a system for automatically providing customer preferences during a fueling operation. The system includes a fuel dispenser with an audio/video customer interface having a display and audio system. Wireless communications electronics are associated with the dispenser and adapted to receive signals including indicia from remote communications units. A control system and memory are provided to receive the indicia from a remote communications unit and provide a customer with select information, predefined by the customer, at the customer interface. The selected information is chosen by the customer and associated with the remote communications unit prior to the transaction. Notably, the control system may include a dispenser controller, a central site controller, a control system associated with a remote network, or any combination thereof.
Preferably, the indicia includes identification indicia and the select information is stored in the memory associated with the identification indicia of the remote communications unit. The control system is adapted to access the selected information in the memory upon receipt of the identification indicia and provide the select information at the customer interface accordingly. The control system may also be adapted to access the select information at a remote network based on the indicia received from the remote communications unit and provide the select information to the customer interface. Additionally, the select information may be stored on an audio/visual source adapted for playback of audio/visual material according to the pre-selected customer information. The select information may include news, entertainment, advertising and merchandising material. Additionally, the customer may elect to receive an audible or visual greeting at or near the beginning of the transaction.
Furthermore, the control system may be adapted to allow a customer to modify the predefined selected information during a transaction to receive different or additional information. Preferably, the customer interface will include a keypad and display for effecting such modification.
Another aspect of the present invention is a method for automatically providing customer preferences during a fueling operation. The method includes receiving indicia from a remote communications unit, determining select types of information predefined by the customer using the indicia, accessing information defined by the select types of information, and providing the information to the customer during a transaction. The receiving step may further include receiving identification indicia for the remote communications unit and the accessing step may include accessing information according to the select types of information in a database using the identification indicia. Notably, the information provided to the customer may be the indicia received from the transponder, such as a greeting, or the information may be selected or defined by the indicia received from the remote communications unit.
These and other aspects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art after reading the following description of the preferred embodiments when considered with the drawings.